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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Review: Dobble and Jungle Speed Games

Does it ever grate on your nerves when you look around the house and see everyone's face stuck in a different screen. Husband on computer, daughter on DS, boys zoned out in front of the TV and *cough* Mum perhaps *cough* on her laptop?

And nobody talking to each other....

Without going all misty-eyed and at the risk of sound like Granny - it's an all too common occurance these days.

So when UK basedEsdevium Games asked me if I would like to review two of their new card games I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to remedy the situation.

The games duly arrived:

DOBBLE

JUNGLE SPEED

And the plan changed.

It had nothing to do with the fact that the instructions looked slightly complicated, and certainly nothing to do with the fact that they arrived on my nephews 8th birthday, ahem, or that I hadn't actually bought him a present yet.

Anyway, completely unrelated to any of the above, I decided for the purpose of the review that my nephew and family would be the perfect candidates to test out the games. Not only are they the right ages - 4, 8 and 10, but they don't have a telly. Yep, you read that right - they're that type of family.

The games went down a storm. They're well made, well thought out and well packaged with a tin to keep all the cards in Dobble in one place, and a cloth bag for all the parts of Jungle Speed. Most important when kids are involved! The 4 year old especially liked Dobble - even though it's targeted at over 6's.

No cheating there Mum!

If you'd like to know more, here's a little bit about how the games work:

Jungle Speed, is for ages 8 and up, it’s a fast paced card matching game with a totem pole that sits in the middle of all the players. Each player must take turns to reveal one of the colourful cards with imaginative symbols on, when two players get a matching symbol, they must race to grab the totem pole. If you are the quicker player you can off load your cards to your slow opponent, when you get rid of all your cards, you are the winner! Sounds easy....but the symbols are very similar and can trick even the sharpest eye, if you make a mistake, you are punished by taking everyone’s cards. Jungle Speed is great fun to play all together as parents can get involved too, there’s also additional cards to add into the pack that temporarily alter the rules just to make it slightly harder!

Dobble, which is for ages 6 and up, is a visual perception card game with 5 different mini-games to be played. The pack of 55 round cards each have 8 colourful cartoons on them, ranging from insects to flowers and symbols. Each card has one picture the same as every other card in the deck, which can be difficult to spot as they’re at different angles and sizes! All 5 mini games are a variation on the basic game play of spotting the matching picture, shout it out loud and grab/get rid of the card while competing to be the fastest player. Dobble comes in a lovely yellow tin which is handy for taking out and about, playing outside on a picnic or on a rainy day inside. Again, adults can enjoy Dobble too as the concept sounds easy, but associating the picture with the right word can be tricky when you’re put up against the clock.

Now - time to schedule your family games night!

Disclosure: Products were sent free of charge for purposes of the review.